Seclusion
by DiamondCompass
Summary: The Octoling formerly known as Eight explains her view of the surface. And everything she's done to stay there. (My first oneshot)


**Nobody was expecting this, right?**

**Yeah, so as you guys probably know, my other story, Alias, is on hiatus. But then I really wanted to write about her, so then I made this oneshot. It takes place before Alias, and before The Agents of Inkopolis. I just felt like writing about who she was before picking her name.**

**Enjoy, I guess.**

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There are a total of two Octolings on the surface.

One of them is famous. Marina Ida. Somehow, nobody knows that she isn't an Inkling. They just call her the "tall, exotic" girl next to Pearl. Even without that weird black mark connecting her eyes and suction cups that faced outwards, nobody can find her out.

I guess it's how the concept of "Octoling" doesn't exist in the public. Everyone thinks that we were all wiped out a century ago in the Great Turf War. And so, nobody could be one.

The second Octoling is some girl who supposedly saved the world. That was me. Yay me.

I really should feel better about that, but I have a hard time believing that a single statue could blow everything up. And even if it could, shouldn't Pearl have the credit? She was the one that blasted it in the end.

Anyway, before all of that statue shenanigans, down in Deepsea, I was looking forward to being on the surface. Ecstatic, even. This was everything an Octoling wanted, unless you were weird. But there's a problem. Quite the huge one, at that.

I have no idea what it was like for Marina when she escaped, but I don't think it involved a complete memory wipe and, like, three-four weeks straight of being tested like a lab rat.

But hey, I made it, right? I broke the system, and instead of getting blended, I got to the surface.

I have some regrets. Like how I couldn't bring anyone with me. Deepsea was disconnected from everything else underground, so I was nowhere near any Octarian domes or Kettles. And there's no way I'm risking my life to bring someone else to the surface. Who would I bring anyway? It's not like I know anyone, with the memory wipe and everything.

Except Marina, but she's already on the surface, and I didn't really know her well enough as a friend. She was "famous" enough underground as a tech genius to give me a spark of recognition when I first saw her. Ironic that I could recognize her better than I could recognize myself.

And there's Octavio, but he's not... yeah.

About Marina, I don't know how she rose to fame again, but I knew it involved music. I also don't know _why_ she wanted to be famous. It's the most dangerous thing an Octoling could be on the surface. I think. Sure, the surface is their... no, _our_ main goal, but getting rid of the Inklings is seen as a step towards that goal. At least, it is to everyone with a shred of power.

So having a single Octoling on the surface before the complete Inkling eradication is seen either a a threat to the secrecy they have or in extreme danger. Probably both.

I know enough about the underground society to explain its principles, but not enough to form an actual image. This memory loss is annoying...

Anyway, I'm pretty sure I can speak for both me and Marina when I say that we're neither threats to secrecy nor in extreme danger. At least, extreme danger from the Inklings. If there was anything putting us in extreme danger, it was the risk of being pulled back underground.

Marina's response to this risk was to become famous. I don't think she had the underground in mind when starting her career, but at least she has security guards... sometimes.

There'd also be thousands of people who would definitely notice if she suddenly went missing one day, so that's another line of defense. Not like any of those thousand could do anything if she just disappeared one day, but _that_ would be a huge threat to secrecy. What baffles me is how they didn't catch her when she was semi-famous, enough to be known undrground but not well enough to be a huge deal if she went missing.

To an Inkling, Off the Hook is just a screaming gremlin and her tall girlfriend. To me, it's a miracle.

...And Pearl. She's not as impressive in my eyes.

On the flip side, my response to the risk of being pulled back underground was to keep the lowest profile I possibly could. First of all, I already cut ties with the NSS. After the Deepsea escape, I made all of them — including Agent 3 — to swear that they wouldn't tell anyone about me or the entire endeavor underground.

Not that I was sure they wouldn't, but it was better than nothing.

Also, I talk to absolutely nobody. It's sad, but it has to be done if I want to keep my life up here.

As a result of the lack of social interaction, I know nothing about the culture other than what I watch from afar. Like the big screens they use for videos rather than fake landscapes. And the tiny arrow-shaped devices they use as phones. And the phenomenon that they called "Turf Wars."

Isn't war a bad thing? All I really know about it is that it was a sport that Agent 3 played a lot of. Apparently, it paid really well, because the only reason I have any money at all is because Agent 3 just went and gave me a small fortune. I haven't really used any significant amount of it.

Anyway, I've managed to determine that it's a sport. A sport that involves a lot of weapon use and getting splatted. Apparently regeneration is so common up here, people do it for fun.

I would consider trying out this sport, but that would definitely draw attention to me. Even from a distance, I could figure out that there were famous players with entire fanbases. If I tried that, people would notice me.

Not trying to brag, but I'm pretty sure I'm on the higher end of the bell curve.

Ah, yes, there's another problem. I don't know _why _I was skilled enough to break out of Deepsea in the first place. I have some vague memories of training underground before, but I don't know why I did, what I did, who I did it with. If I _did_ train with anyone.

Because any relationships I might have had are gone now. Even if I had a suspicion that I recognized someone, I couldn't tell them my name because _I don't know it._

That... that has to be the worst part of this memory suppression. The loss of identity. I don't know who I was. And whoever I was had so much more personality than present me. I can't afford to have a personality anymore. Because who someone is I said defined by their relationships. And I don't have any.

Whew. This is getting out of hand. I'll restart this from the beginning.

My name is something, I don't remember. I'm probably sixteen years old. I live in the western side of Inkopolis, where most of the apartment buildings are, and I'm single, duh. I don't work as an employee anywhere, because that would draw attention to me. I'm living off of the load of money Agent 3 just gave me.

I'm in bed by whenever the hell I want, and my sleep schedule is horrible. I'm surprised that I still sleep at night and not the day.

I have tanned skin. My hair is long and purple, reaching my hips, and my eyes are light blue.

And one day, a few months ago, I saved the world. Apparently.

Moving on.

The only memories I have from my past come from tiny eraser-like things that are called Mem Cakes. But the thing about those memories is that none of them tell me anything that I couldn't figure out on my own.

Yes, I know I'm an Octoling. Anyone in my situation could figure that out.

Yes, I know that I knew people. But that doesn't tell me who it was.

Yes, I know that I lived underground. That's a given that comes with the Octoling detail.

It's weird how people take their memories for granted. It's such a common thing, like waking up in the morning or taking a walk. But as someone who lost my past fifteen or so years, I can say that memories are pretty important.

Sometimes, I wonder if I was the same person that I was before the memory suppression. Like, if someone who knew me spent some time with me up here, would they recognize me? I would try that, but I can't. Both because of being one of two Octolings on the surface and how I can't talk to anyone without putting myself in danger. I can barely leave my apartment without people looking at me weirdly.

One time, I was walking down a sidewalk somewhere in Inkopolis, I don't remember exactly where. A group of Inklings saw me. "Hey!" one called out to me. "How'd you get your hair like that?" He wasn't being hostile at all, just curious.

Ah, yes. The outward-facing suction cup hairstyle. Marina popularized it by simply existing, and then other kids tried to copy it. So far, I haven't seen any convincing ones. They usually take, like, rubber bands to pull their hair back and use dye to color them on the inside.

I looked down and sped away. I learned that I couldn't even go and walk outside without somebody calling out to me, since my hairstyle just looked too convincing.

Little did they know, it's convincing 'cause it's the real thing...

Since then, I decided that whenever I have to leave my small apartment, I tie my hair into a ponytail. It's harder to tell that it's facing outwards then. It just looks dyed. That takes attention away.

I've been trying to live a very quiet life. The problem with that is that it's not a very peaceful one. I'm always stuck with the distant feeling of dread, like how whenever I turned a corner, I'd be ambushed and dragged back underground.

I don't even have a real weapon to defend myself with. All I have is an Octoshot Replica the Cuttlefish guy gave me in exchange for the real one from Deepsea. That one wouldn't work against what they informally call the "serious ink." The kind they used in Octo Valley, Octo Canyon, pretty much everywhere that wasn't for that one sport.

I should've kept the real Octoshot, but it's too late now. I wasn't thinking about that in the moment, I was, like, on autopilot. Can't blame me, it was just after saving the world.

In addition to the replica and the box of Mem Cakes, I also own the CQ-80, a ink backpack, a regular ink tank, and a New Squidbeak Splatoon communicator, also from the Cuttlefish guy.

I've never touched it, unless I was moving it from one side of the drawer to another.

And then I have, like, ten t-shirts, my Deepsea clothes, a tape dispenser, a definitely fake ID card that just says "Eight" for the name, and an empty apartment.

None of which would help me if I was to be attacked. Unless, I, like, threw the tape dispenser at someone?

Among the distant dread, there's really only one situation that I feel calm in. And that's when I'm looking up. At the... What was the Inkling word for it again? Sky? Yeah. Sky. There's no Octarian word. At least I don't think there is. A word for the infinite stretch of air and space and... potential.

When I'm looking at the sky, I can't help but relax. Or delve into a frenzy of darting my eyes between whatever's up there. It's weird, those things seem like they're opposites, but I can somehow do both at once.

I'd just climb a few floors to the roof, it didn't matter when, and then I'd lean on the nearest thing higher than the rooftop and stare. I'd feel myself loosen up, and all of the tension from doing practically nothing would melt away.

And then I'd look at every white, cotton-like puff hanging in the sky, lazily drifting through the light blue sea.

And then I'd look at everything behind the clouds. The ball of light and fire they called the sun, the blue dome of floating water.

And then, I'd feel alone. Even in the city, surrounded by other people, I'd still be alone. After all, there are a total of two Octolings on the surface.

Other than Marina, I'm the only one that gets to see this. I can't take anyone else up here. I can't simply send a picture underground. The Octarian society is too secluded for either of those to be possible.

And then, instead of lonely, I'd feel lucky. Fortunate that I can see this in the first place, that I don't have to endure the underground anymore, that the underground didn't follow me up here. After all, there are a total of two Octolings on the surface.

And then I'd feel hopeful. Perhaps the sky was a sign of things to come for the Octarian society. Perhaps the sky could inspire me to do something for them. Perhaps I could be someone else's sky.

And then I'd dismiss that thought with the wave of a hand and the lighthearted laugh to myself. Nothing like that was going to happen anytime soon.

Because there were only two of us. No, not even two. Marina was too much like an Inkling. She was blending in, but in a different way than I did. I usually wasn't trying to hide the fact that I'm an Octoling, I just hide myself instead.

Even less people. I couldn't go alone, go and brave the depths again just for nothing.

Because there's only one of me. But one is enough.

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**Whoever catches the vague Jojo reference, good for you.**

**Yeah, I started writing this before realizing a specific reference would fit perfectly in here.**

**anyway please go check out Alias please and thank you**


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